Warner Bros. shuffled their release schedule today, with most of the films affected being DC Comics adaptations… but in the midst of all the new superhero release dates, they also revealed when they’re planning to get Meg 2: The Trench, director Ben Wheatley’s sequel to Jon Turteltaub’s 2018 “Jason Statham vs. a giant shark” movie The Meg (watch it at THIS LINK) into theatres. August 4, 2023 is the day when audiences will have their chance to watch Statham fight another giant shark on the big screen.
The screenplay for Meg 2: The Trench has been written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, the same writing team that was on the first film. These films are inspired by a series of novels written by Steve Alten.
Statham is joined in the cast of the sequel by returning co-stars Cliff Curtis, Shuya Sophia Cai, and Page Kennedy, as well as Sienna Guillory (Resident Evil: Apocalypse), Skyler Samuels (The Gifted), Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Rambo: Last Blood), and Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior II). Li Bingbing will not be reprising the role of oceanographer Suyin in this movie, despite the fact that Shuya Sophia Cai’s character Meiying is the young daughter of Suyin.
Wheatley told Collider last year that he chose to direct Meg 2 because he “really loved” the first film.
I usually just go with my gut, so if something comes across from my agent and I like it, then I just go for it. So this came up and I just went, ‘Oh, Christ! Meg 2, I’ll do that! That’s brilliant!’
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Wheatley said he was also interested in the project because
it’s an opportunity to do action on such an insanely large scale, that it’s just unbelievable. From doing Free Fire, which was, I thought, was all my Christmases came at once in terms of action, this is just unbelievable. And just doing the storyboards for it, just thinking and going, ‘Oh,’ it’s just … I feel a heavy responsibility for it, to make sure that it kind of delivers to all the big shark fans out there.”
Wheatley’s previous credits include Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers, A Field in England, High-Rise, Free Fire, Rebecca, and In the Earth.